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Gov. Murphy Punts On Drought – DEP Drought “Warning” Too Little And Too Late

While People Urged To Shorten Showers, Water Companies Get A Pass On Millions Of Gallons Per Day In Leaky Pipes

Yesterday, DEP Commissioner LaTourette finally issued a “drought warning” (Administrative Order), which allows DEP to Order drinking water systems to better manage water supplies and ask consumers to conduct voluntary water conservation.

That DEP Order should have been issued months ago, given extremely dry conditions, lack of rainfall, climate science, e.g. climate induced higher temperatures and atmospheric weather drivers (gulf stream), and forecasted dry weather.

Prior and worsening current drought conditions warrant a “drought emergency” declaration by the Governor. That declaration would give DEP additional powers to manage water demand, including mandatory conservation and other restrictions. Billions of gallons of water would have been saved had the Governor acted sooner, when he should have, based on science and precaution.

Restrictions on water use are not politically popular, and require political leadership. A suburban state like NJ has lots of wealthy people who like to water the lawns of their McMansions, top off their pools, wash their cars, power wash their driveways, “water rake leaves”, and play golf on green fairways.

Water intensive business and industry have a lot at stake as well economically in maintaining current water uses – and avoiding any DEP regulatory limits on both their water use and their pollution discharges (see below examples).

Governor Murphy has failed that test of leadership and again delayed issuance of a drought emergency.

Today, while I don’t want to be alarmist,  I want to highlight important issues exacerbated and raised by the drought and DEP’s Administrative Order that are getting zero media attention.

1) From sewer plant discharge to your drinking water intake: “Viagara Falls”

One of the best kept secrets about NJ’s drinking water system, rarely reported by the press or mentioned by DEP, is the fact during a drought, from 75 – to 95% of the water flowing and taken from NJ’s major rivers to supply drinking water systems is wastewater discharges from industrial facilities and sewage treatment plants. That accounts for 475 million gallons per day of drinking water in the Passaic Basin alone. For the facts and receipts on that, see:

• NJ’s Little Known But Massive Wastewater Recycling Water Supply Project

As the rainfall stops, the flows of the rivers decline. There is far less water in the river to dilute the wastewater discharges. When setting the pollution limits on the wastewater discharges for sewage treatment plants and industrial facilities, the NJ DEP has embraced a policy that “the solution to pollution is dilution”. DEP assumes a minimum flow in the river for dilution of pollutants, and limits pollution discharges based on that dilution. These pollution discharge limits are assumed to meet water quality standards and protect public health and the environment.

But river flows under drought conditions are far lower than DEP based pollution discharge limits on.

Keep in mind that the wastewater discharges are loaded with toxic chemicals like pharmaceuticals and endocrine disruptors and that the drinking water treatment systems do NOT remove 100% of these chemicals so that they pass through to your tap – and hundreds of these chemicals are not even regulated and have unknown adverse health effects. (does anyone even remember those stories about dual sexed fish found in NJ’s rivers?) 

Big Pharma and the Chemistry Council must be pleased that those stories have fallen off the radar. I wonder why?

My friend and former colleague Jeff Tittel, a wizard of the sound bite, dubbed this problem “Viagara Falls” (for the Passaic River flows over the Falls).

These health risks are being suppressed. Note that the DEP press release and the NJ American press release and the news coverage does not mention these issues. I raised them in my testimony to DEP on Tuesday.

But if you closely read the DEP Order – which few will and fewer still will understand – these issues are buried in technocratic language: (emphasis mine):

6. These modified reservoir releases and passing flows shall remain in place until otherwise revised by any future order or directive. The Director of the DEP Division of Water Supply and Geoscience (Director) and/or her designee(s) shall coordinate with water providers to assess the potential for water quality degradation associated with any reductions or transfers of water hereby ordered.

You can be sure that those “assessments of the potential for water quality degradation” will be kept secret and never disclosed by DEP or reported by the press.

Tomorrow, we present additional significant under reported issues in Part 2 – here’s bullets of the topics as a teaser:

2) NJ Could Be Replicating The Flint Michigan Water Crisis By Transferring Water From One System To Another

3) There Are Massive Leaks In NJ’s Antiquated Water Distribution System – DEP is failing to mandate corrective action (while they ask you to take shorter showers)

4) The fish and critters are suffering and dying

They’re All Now “Shocked” By Trump’s EPA Appointment And Rollback Agenda

NJ Attorney General’s “Challenge” Is Too Little And Far Too Late

Social Media Posts Are Lame And A Fake “Resistance”

NJ Spotlight tells us today that NJ Attorney General Platkin has joined the “Trump Watch” “resistance”:

• Platkin joins Democratic AGs in resistance to Trump

And that “reporting” of the “Trump resistance” is based on the AG’s “social media posts”.

Excuse my French, but, are you fucking kidding me?!

AG Platkin, Governor Murphy, and DEP Commissioner LaTourette have done absolutely NOTHING to inform the public about the threats of Trump’s policy agenda, as laid out in detail in 900+ pages in Trump’s Project 2025 Report, which was issued as a Trump Transition Plan almost 2 YEARS ago.

They have done virtually NOTHING to expose Trump’s Project 2025 rollback agenda on climate and environmental protections.

Instead, they spent months issuing dozens of self promotional and highly partisan press releases praising the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act projects in NJ.

Environmental groups could have issued Reports and held press conferences to educate and inform the public about the threats of Project 2025. Instead, they did nothing but cheerlead for Governor Murphy and DEP Commissioner LaTourette.

The DEP could have issued technical Reports about the content on the environmental policy recommendations in Project 2025. Instead, they did nothing at all.

NJ Democratic Legislators could have held hearings to solicit critical testimony on Project 2025 and its threats to NJ’s environment. But they did nothing.

NJ media could have written stories that exposed the contents of Project 2025. They too did nothing.

I specifically warned all these people about the threats of Project 2025 almost 18 MONTHS ago.

I wrote letters to DEP Commissioner LaTourette, Senate environmental leaders, environmental groups and media.

On July 28, 2023, I wrote:

Dear Commissioner LaTourette:

I write to give you a heads up and urge you to read the Heritage Foundation’s recent initiative called “Project 2025”. It is explicitly designed to “dismantle the administrative State”. FULL REPORT HERE:

Chapter 13 provides a radical agenda to dismantle EPA and virtually all regulatory, science, and climate programs – read it here:

https://thf_media.s3.amazonaws.com/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_CHAPTER-13.pdf

I strongly urge you to get out in front of and do everything within your power to derail this freight train. This includes a strong public defense and expansion of regulatory programs, which is something both you and Gov. Murphy consistently either fail to defend or overtly run away from (“we’re not mandating ….” et al).

I followed that letter up with several specific analyses of the contents of Project 2025 and the radical Trump agenda, see:

• The Right Wing’s New Long Game Plan – “Project 2025”

• Trump Is Now Marketing “Project 2025” – Promises $110 Billion Deregulation & Tax Break Deal To Big Oil And Gas

• What “Project 2025” Would Do To US EPA, Climate, And Environmental Protection Programs

• Trump’s Project 2025 Attack On The Department Of Interior Might Be Worse Than EPA Dismantling

• NJ Conservationists Embrace The Policies Of Trump’s Project 2025

• Trump Campaign Tries To Walk Away From Project 2025

• Trump Dismantled Environmental Protections and Hired The Swamp – Project 2025 Would Finish The Job

I don’t know if its incompetence, cowardice, or corruption – or perhaps all three – but these lame bastards should be ashamed of themselves.

The fact that they are now attempting to be forming a “Trump resistance” literally makes me sick to my stomach.

No Rain In October – Little Rain On The Horizon

Climate Driven Extreme Weather Leads To Drought Emergency

Getting Warm. Source: Rutgers, State Climatologist Robinson. Presented at DEP drought hearing (8/25/10)

The chart above was from a DEP drought hearing back in 2010.

The Murphy DEP held a public hearing today on whether to issue a drought warning, see:

• Unprecedented Dry Spell and Declining Water Storage Supplies Prompt Virtual Public Hearing on Statewide Water Supply Drought Warning

The hearing began with an eye opening briefing by DEP on current drought and water supply conditions and by State Climatologist Robinson on record low rainfall and high temperatures. It was virtually identical to his 2010 presentation (see above chart).

There was no rainfall in the entire month of October!  There is now a 10 inch statewide rainfall deficit. (I will post the presentation when DEP does – here it is, watch.)

Curiously, Robinson attributed those extreme record breaking conditions to a “La Niña pattern” and changes to the jet stream – but he never once attributed the most significant factor, which is the climate emergency.

Climate scientists have been warning about exactly this kind of extreme weather for decades.

The DEP virtual hearing was attended by about 250 people, who provided over an hour of comments to DEP.

Several commenters stated that DEP was too slow to respond to the emerging drought and should have issued public advisories and mandatory water conservation restrictions months ago.

Commenters urged the DEP to recommend that the Governor declare a drought emergency now. That would empower DEP to mandate both supply and demand management options, like mandatory water conservation and curtailment of non-essential water uses, like watering lawns, golf courses, car washes, et al.

I asked a series of questions, mostly focused on the climate (time 55:30), water quality, public health, and ecological implications of the drought. DEP is doing very little to reduce these risks and impacts, and there is very little public awareness about them. (time 36:45)

I again provided recommendations from a performance Audit conducted by the State of California. They found that California regulators failed to incorporate climate science into the water supply forecasts and plans. They also found that drought preparation was inadequate. DEP repeats both errors.

• DWR Has Not Adequately Ensured That Its Water Supply Forecasts Account for the Effects of Climate Change

• DWR Must Do More to Prepare for the Impact of More Severe Droughts on the State Water Project’s Operations

For the full Audit, see:

https://www.auditor.ca.gov/reports/2022-106/index.html

During a drought, DEP can direct water purveyors to shift water supplies from one system to another. This raises serious issues that we saw in the Flint water emergency, where the change in the source water can leach and scour contaminants like lead out of the water distribution lines.

I criticized DEP’s failure to mandate the water purveyors implement the “Asset Management Plans”,  particularly with respect to stopping leaks, which waste millions of gallons of water each day.

Much of NJ’s water supply comes from rivers.  During a drought, from 75 – 95% of the flow of NJ rivers is treated industrial and municipal wastewater from sewage treatment plants. These low flows increase the concentrations of pollutants in the source water to unsafe levels, as drinking water treatment does not remove all chemicals and many are unregulated. Pumping that polluted river water to reservoirs creates additional problems, including algal blooms and the need for more treatment. (time 1:16:00)

Low stream and river flows also damage sensitive ecosystems.

Yet the DEP fails to impose regulatory protections to address these public health and ecological issues that are created by drought low flow conditions. Current DEP standards are based on outdated science about stream flows.

We ended our comments, third round, with a call for DEP to request that Governor Murphy declare a drought emergency. A dry winter will lead to truly dire conditions come spring.

Finally, retired DEP water supply planner Bob Kecskes made a very interesting point. He noted that a tiny fraction of water users, i.e. suburban homeowners, consume a disproportionate share of water demand due to watering suburban lawns. He compared their wasteful use (800 gallons per capita per day) with an urban home (50 gallons per capita per day).

Because all users must pay to build and maintain the drinking water infrastructure, the result is a huge subsidy from poor cities to wealthy suburbs, as urban residents pay for the profligate use of their suburban neighbors. This is another subtle form of environmental injustice.

Kesckes challenged DEP to conduct a study and adopt regulatory reforms.

Familiar Buzzwords For “Forest Stewardship” Could Justify Logging

US Forest Service Asked To Table Grant Proposal Pending Public Consultation

see 2 updates below

[Update #1: 11/9/24 – NJ Conservation groups support the proposal and strongly urged:

This plan will be solely about ecological restoration and contain no logging, just like Baldpate Mountain where there has been no logging, not even salvage after the tornado, and nothing but forest restoration and invasive and deer control. Please focus on the plethora of horrible stuff statewide – this is not one of them !

I guess you have to trust them. I don’t. And the Baldpate Mountain project is a mess, with industrial fencing of acres of lovely meadow, with very little maintenance, leading to overgrown invasives, not forest. ~~~ end update]

At their October 17, 2024 regular meeting, NJ Highlands Council Executive Director Ben Spinelli briefed the Council on a grant application recently submitted to the US Forest Service (USFS).

The Council is seeking a USFS grant to support a $1.46 million proposal to develop a “Forest Management Plan” for the 35,000 acre forested Newark Watershed.

Having witnessed the destructive logging that is justified by the slogans “forest management” and “forest stewardship” – and how government grant funds promote these abuses without any public awareness – alarm bells went off in my head.

So I immediately filed an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request for the grant application to understand what the Council was seeking to do to these forests.

The Council delayed responding for 2 weeks past the legal deadline and finally provided the USFS grant application documents today. The needless delay heightened my skepticism.

Based upon a very rapid review of those documents, there are some red flags:

1) While it contains some good stuff (e.g rare plant inventory, just 10 acres of tree plantings) there is the usual abuse of “stewardship” and “treatments” based on forest health, invasive species, creation of habitat, and restoration. So this is more than study, data collection and assessment, it includes management (logging?)

2) It was supported by the NJ DEP State Forester and deemed consistent with the NJ Forest Action Plan (which promotes all kinds of abuse).

3) The proposal goes out of its way to claim that the DEP conservation easement and deed restrictions on Newark Watershed Lands do NOT restrict development of a Forest Stewardship Plan.

4) It duplicates DEP responsibilities for water quality related monitoring and data collection.

5) It seems like this is a project from Michael Van Clef – I invite anyone to take a field tour of Baldpate Mountain in Hopewell for an example of his work. (I noticed that the proposal included a fenced in area to prevent deer browse. Take a look at how that’s worked at Baldpate!)

6) There is no evidence that I saw showing that there was any consultation with conservation groups, the public, tribes, or the local and county governments.

Based upon this rapid assessment, I reached out to USFS to request that this grant proposal be tabled pending adequate public participation and scientific peer review.

I strongly urge you to join this request – we may be able to nip this in the bud and prevent harms:

Dear US Forest Service:

I am writing regarding a grant proposal recently submitted by the NJ Highlands Council, titled:

“Partnership for a comprehensive forest stewardship plan and water quality in the Newark Watershed”

The proposal responds to a solicitation from the USFS:

“USDA Forest Service Eastern Region, State, Private, and Tribal Forestry Fiscal Year 2025 – Landscape Scale Restoration Competitive Process”

I filed a public records request with the Council to obtain relevant documents and received a reply today.

As you know, the management of NJ’s forests is a matter of extreme public interest – particularly Highlands forests – as evidenced by NJ Senate Environment Committee Chairman Bob Smith’s creation of a legislative Forest Management Task Force. You may recall that Senator Smith was prime sponsor of the Highlands Act, which was based upon a USFS 2002 Report on Highlands forests.

After a year of public deliberations, that Task Force issued its Report and recommendations, which are currently pending legislative review and policy development.

Given the priority of the various forestry issues, pending Legislative policy development regarding forest management, and the absence of meaningful public consultation by the Highlands Council in developing the subject grant proposal – including tribal and conservation group consultation – I urge the USFS to table consideration of this grant application at this time, pending adequate public participation and scientific peer review.

I am copying Chairman Smith and DEP Commissioner LaTourette in hopes of their intervention to slow this project down and allow public participation and scientific peer review.

Respectfully.

*Bill Wolfe

*retired DEP planner and former member of NJ Gov. McGreevey’s Highlands Task Force and drafter of the NJ Highlands Act.

c: Senator Smith

Senator McKeon

DEP Commissioner LaTourette

Highlands Council Ex. Director Ben Spinelli

[Update #2 – 11/10/24 – Here is my reply to NJ conservationists who support this project:

“since you brought it up, I checked up on the Baldpate performance. I wrote about these problems a decade ago, see:

http://www.wolfenotes.com/2014/11/whats-up-with-baldpate-mountain-reforestation-project/

Here are excerpts from Mercer County Parks Report – were these mistakes ever admitted by Van Clef and are these mistakes being repeated in Newark?:

“Plant Stewardship Index Survey and Report Ted Stiles Preserve at Baldpate Mountain *Public Version

The study confirms my layman’s observations  and criticisms (see page 44 – 46) – so even if you agree that reforestation is an appropriate management of the meadow (which I don’t), the project is a failure.

I restate the Mercer County Report findings in full (boldface are mine):

Large Reforestation Exclosure:

This is the second, larger reforestation exclosure. Maintenance as turf ceased in 2010, and the area was fenced and planted with native trees and forbs.

The area showed substantially poorer sapling growth than the small exclosure.This is attributable to the significant breeches in the exclosure fence.Deer sign was conspicuous throughout the area.

Much of the sapling regeneration in this area is white ash. Other tree recruitment appears to be from nearby trees, mostly wind-dispersed species.

The ground layer is dominated by Japanese honeysuckle, Japanese stiltgrass, and other weedy, primarily non-native species. Common milkweed and wrinkleleaf goldenrod are the most common native forbs.

Autumn olive has largely been controlled by herbicide. Multiflora rose is severely affected by rose-rosette disease.

An interesting occurrence of black cohosh was found, flowering, inside the fence. The nearest population outside the fence is approximately 30 meters away.

Stewardship Discussion

A few observations were made that pertain to deer fencing and afforestation. These are not intended to second-guess any existing practices (which were structured in part by funder approaches and time constraints), but to build on observation to inform future approaches.

1. Most of the saplings appeared to be natural recruits. Given adequate protection from deer browse, trees have recruited quite readily. Given that survivorship of planted tree stock appears quite low, this calls into question the practice of introducing trees to afforestation sites (at least where thorough site prep and supplemental watering are not feasible), as opposed to allowing trees to recruit naturally.

2. Exclosures should be managed with a mowed perimeter inside or outside the fence so that the fence can be regularly inspected for breeches and easily repaired should damage to the fence occur.

3. The survey found low diversity in the sapling cohort, and a high degree of invasive plant colonization of the ground layer. Might an alternate restoration approach, a type of long-term managed succession, lead to a more diverse restored habitat than direct afforestation? That is to say, successfully restoring a habitat to a diverse meadow and shrub community may lay the groundwork for a structurally and species diverse forest in the longer term; taking a lawn or ruderal field and planting trees in it may not lead to the desired future condition of diverse native forest. 

Wolfe

Billions Spent On Campaign and GOTV, While System Is Overwhelmed And Racist

Predominately poor black district gets 2 machines, 5 workers, and long lines.

Nearby wealthy white district has 6 machines, surplus workers, and no line.

Charlie and I set out at 6:50 am today for our local polling station, less than a 5 minute walk away, Courtyard Apartments at Riverview. I think it was or still is a part of a larger public housing project run by the Philadelphia Housing Authority.

On arrival, there was  a line of 15 people outside the building. The line was a mixed demographic: by mostly older voters.

The doors opened promptly at 7 am, but it immediately became obvious that the operation was overwhelmed.

The supervisor walked through the line and asked the crowd if anyone wanted to work at the polling station. She soon was in a loud phone conversation with her managers, desperately demanding that they send her more staff.

It took over 10 minutes for the first voter to leave.

As I entered the room, I noticed that there were just 2 voting machines.

The pace picked up somewhat and I was out by 7:35, not too bad and much quicker than I feared.

But in that half hour, the line had grown considerably, I’d guess at least 50 – 75 people long. The demographic seemed to have shifted as well, to almost exclusively black people.

After voting, we headed for the usual dog run over at Old Swedes Historic Site, the oldest Church in Pennsylvania and the oldest building in Philadelphia.

The route there takes us by Shot Tower, another lovely Philadelphia historic landmark.

There is a polling station at Shot Tower Recreation Area.

As we strolled by on Carpenter Street, I could not help noticing glaring contrasts with my voting experience at Courtyard Apartments at Riverview.

All upscale white people. No lines. Several poll workers standing outside with nothing to do.

I asked voters and poll workers how many voting machines were inside. Reply: 6.

I asked to speak with a supervisor. A young woman with a clip board emerged and I informed her of the staff shortage at Riverview and the lack of voting machines (just 2). I asker her to contact superiors and reallocate resources.

Later, after about a half hour of fetch with Charlie at Old Swedes, we returned home past the Shot Tower polling station. I spoke with the same young woman and she said that they had sent several workers over to Riverside, and that they were now fully staffed.

But they still have just 2 voting machines and I assume the lines are even longer.

I thought the Democrats – who run Philadelphia and Pennsylvania State government – wanted to maximize turnout, particularly in black districts. Long lines obviously reduce turnout.

So why was the resource allocation to polling places so inequitable and inefficient? (and more like a Republican district in Georgia).

They spend billions on campaign ads and GOTV, but the actual polling places are totally swamped.